Drivers stopped on known crime routes

Relevant offers

Statistics from a Blockhouse Bay check point on Monday morning show how busy police can get during routine stops.

Six officers and one sergeant carried out checks for an hour and a half on Kinross St as part of a district wide crackdown on volume crime.

Operation Vapour is headed by Waitakere prevention manager Inspector Claire Humble who is aiming to tackle higher numbers of thefts, burglaries and petrol drive-offs in March.

Part of this is increasing the number of checkpoints throughout Waitemata in corridors that are known to be frequented by criminals travelling between suburbs.

Monday's checkpoint revealed that of the 540 vehicles that were stopped nearly 10 per cent were issued with a ticket or verbal warning with one person having their license suspended and another arrested.

All drivers had their warrant, registration, seat belts and licenses checked and were breath-tested.

It might add a minute or two to people's travel time but Mrs Humble says the last thing police want is to annoy people. They aim to have seven or eight officers on duty in order to keep the lines moving. "You need a good amount of people because once somebody's been pulled over it takes the officer off the line," she says.

"You need at least seven or eight to do it successfully, and keep the traffic moving because the last thing we want to do is inconvenience people as well. We don't want people to get annoyed because we're trying to do something proactive."